South Africa is one of the most unequal economies globally. In this paper, we examine the design of its personal income tax (PIT), with a focus on its redistributive function. We apply the Pfähler decomposition method to analyse the redistributive effects of key components of the South African...

Individuals vary considerably in how much they earn during their lifetimes. This study examines the role of the tax‐and‐transfer system in mitigating such inequalities, which could otherwise lead to disparities in living standards. Utilizing a life‐cycle model, we determine that the...

Wealth is increasingly unequally distributed in many countries. This study examines public perceptions of wealth deservingness and preferences for taxing the wealth of the rich, focusing on how opinions vary based on the amount, use, and origin of wealth. Drawing on an original vignette...

As the baby boomer generation enters retirement, the payas-you-go pension system in Germany is under an increasing amount of pressure. Relevant changes, in particular higher contribution rates or lower pension levels, are causing tension between generations: Either the financial burden on the...

This paper aims to test the hypothesis of the existence of significant tax competition between communes, which mainly concerns the share of value-added tax (VAT) proceeds, by exploring the system for allocating intergovernmental transfers in Morocco and analyzing the determinants of VAT...

Inequality often arises from strategic interactions among individuals. This is so because risky investments can not only be resolved by chance (natural risk), but also by others' actions (social risk). We study how these different sources of inequality shape fairness judgments and the level of...

I take a simple model of affine taxation of labour income and append to it the possibility that the chosen tax schedule triggers conflict in society. I demonstrate theoretically that, under certain conditions, the set of efficient tax schedules is a proper subset of the set of efficient tax...

Inequality often arises from strategic interactions among individuals. This is so because risky investments can not only be resolved by chance (natural risk), but also by others' actions (social risk). We study how these different sources of inequality shape fairness judgments and the level of...

Levels of interpersonal income inequality in African countries are much higher than they were long assumed to be. The literature on politics in sub-Saharan Africa says little about the redistributive pressures arising from this, other than to argue that class politics is rarely observed in...

This paper extends the traditional concept of disposable income by including in-kind transfers for education and health as well as consumption taxes in the analysis. This extended view of tax-benefit systems offers a more comprehensive understanding of redistribution mechanisms within countries...

This paper investigates the relationship between inequality and redistributive taxation. It provides a review of existing research on the topic and a cross-country empirical analysis of this relationship. Using data from the World Income Inequality Database, Government Revenue Dataset, and other...

We study the electoral repercussions of the L'Aquila earthquake in 2009, one of Italy's most catastrophic post-WWII seismic events. We construct a unique municipality-level dataset, combining high-resolution data on the ground acceleration recorded during the earthquake with European election...

While economic inequality has gained prominence in the contemporary development debate, the reasons why the degree of tolerance for inequality varies among countries remain an unresolved issue. This knowledge gap has resulted in excessive policy emphasis on inequality in some countries where...

This paper experimentally examines Max Weber's thesis on the influence of religious narratives - particularly the Protestant Ethic - on attitudes toward wealth redistribution. Weber argued that the Protestant Reformation fostered the belief that economic success signals divine favour, thereby...

Inequality often arises from strategic interactions among individuals. This is so because risky investments can not only be resolved by chance (natural risk), but also by others' actions (social risk). We study how these different sources of inequality shape fairness judgments and the level of...

Inequality often arises from strategic interactions among individuals. This is so because risky investments can not only be resolved by chance (natural risk), but also by others' actions (social risk). We study how these different sources of inequality shape fairness judgments and the level of...

Nowadays, all policy makers must engage with direct and indirect carbon pricing issues. However, the implications of different types of tools and methods to price carbon and support decarbonization deserve further attention in view of their development implications. Two aspects-revenue recycling...

In a post land reformenvironment, violence and redistribution are substitutes for an opportunistic incumbent attempting industrialization. We setup a theoretical model to explore this relationship for individual and group level violence across two types of policy driven post...

This paper empirically tests Max Weber's thesis on how religious narratives, particularly the Protestant Ethic, influence attitudes toward wealth redistribution. Weber suggested that the Protestant Reformation, led to the belief that economic success was a sign of divine favor, legitimizing...

This paper refines the concept of disposable income by incorporating governmentprovided in-kind benefits for education and health services, as well as imputed VAT payments, following Figari and Paulus (2015). Our analysis reveals that including these elements significantly reduces income...

This paper explores the link between default risk and fiscal procyclicality. We show that countries with higher sovereign risk have a more procyclical fiscal expenditure policy, which is driven mostly by transfers. We build a small open economy model with income inequality, social transfers, and...

A model of endogenous growth is presented, based on productive public expenditures, and featuring some degree of income inequality, and polarization in policy preferences. The main innovation lays in the political process determining capital taxation that relies, both on voting and on "influence...

Protests and fiscal crises often coincide, with complex causal dynamics at play. We examine the interaction between tax revolts and sovereign risk using a quantitative structural model calibrated to Argentina during the Macri administration (2015-2019). In the model, the government can be...

While there is increasing consensus in the academic debate on the regressive nature of energy subsidies and the necessity to reduce them, this is much less so for food subsidy reforms – not least because of the positive impact of food subsidies for food security. They make food affordable even...

This paper empirically tests Max Weber’s thesis on how religious narratives, particularly the Protestant Ethic, influence attitudes toward wealth redistribution. Weber suggested that the Protestant Reformation, led to the belief that economic success was a sign of divine favor, legitimizing...

The economy is traditionally human-centered and has given too little consideration to plants, animals, climate, and nature in general. What should the economy do to become 'green'? Changing people's social norms would be ideal but is hard to achieve. Second best is to regulate and constrain the...

With the transition from the German national emissions trading system to the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS2) from 2027, final consumer prices for fossil motor and heating fuels are likely to rise significantly. This increase will affect low-income households more noticeably, as they...